Making a basic table with 7′ long softwood aprons that are 4″ wide and 1″ thick. Legs are 3″x3″ and will have the mortises. Any tips or tricks on how to easily cut the tenons on the ends of such long boards? Can go either handtool or powertool but still fishing for ideas. Also considering dowels joinery…
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Radial arm saw to cut the shoulder, band saw to remove the cheeks.
This is how I'd go about it.
Router's also an option.
With hand tools, no different to cutting tenons on a 12" long rail, really. Mark your lines and saw to them.
And yeah, I'd avoid the dowels.
I've cut tenon shoulders on my tablesaw using a sled. I have one large sled that has about three feet to the left of the blade. Clamping a piece like yours ought to work.
This is exactly the sort of project that has me thinking i might get a Festool Domino, to be honest. I have to make a bed frame next year, and maybe a dining room table that might involve similar hi jinx.
On a table that size, don't use dowels.
I didn't feel I could describe this in words alone so I went to SketchUp.
If you build the guides as illustrated the plywood spacer(you may want to make this extend slightly less than the thickness of your work piece to insure the guides will clamp tight) will register against the uncut work piece as you rotate it around to cut the 4 surfaces. Clamp guide 1 in place first then use the Spacer block to locate the position for Guide 2 and clamp it in place.
Using a top bearing pattern bit just rout the tenon to the desired depth, if it's deeper that 1/4" just cut through the guide arms first. The guide arms will provide not only a clamping surface but also reduce tear out.
I hope this is clear.
Nice jig and thanks for Sketching it up. Thinking of modifying it so I can clamp all four aprons together (long & short) and rout them in one pass. Think that will work?
Not going to use dowels!
I can't see how you would be able to get a consistent registration against the end of the rails plus you need to be able to rotate it around all 4 sides, but maybe you have an idea I don't.
I also realized it would be best to leave the tenon end ¼" long(overall rail length +½")to provide a solid and sure surface to register Guide 1 on, then trim them to the finished length afterwards.
Agree and will play around with the idea. Thanks again for sketching it up and sharing. Cool jig ...
You're welcome.
I hope it works for you.
One last thought. The plywood spacer on guide 1 will need to be either notched for the ¼" extra rail length or simply held back ¼" from the guide edge. The resulting gap shouldn't be a problem as long as your router bit has at least ½" cutting length, this will keep the bearing on the ¾" platform and out of the gap.
Use a router to mortise each piece and use floating tenons sized to match the mortise.
Domino, then. It should be the geet big 'un, with 14mm thick dominoes.
Lataxe
I believe the setup for breadboard ends that Anissa published should work with minimum fuss.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2010/04/01/build-a-jig-for-breadboard-ends
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